Next Steps For Spiritual Growth | Pastor John Greiner

On this Vision Sunday message, “Next Steps to Spiritual Growth,” the focus is on God’s call for believers to continually move forward through the journey of new, grow, and go. Rooted in Ephesians 4 and the pattern of the early church, the message lays out a clear path for spiritual maturity: welcoming people into faith, helping them grow through teaching, fellowship, and service, and ultimately equipping them to step into ministry and impact others. Using vivid illustrations from construction, discipleship, and church life, it paints a compelling vision of a healthy, growing church where every believer has a role, every gift strengthens the body, and everyone is challenged to take their next step toward purpose, service, and Kingdom growth.

Transcript

Opening Declarations And Vision

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Lift our Bibles up and wave them around. Make Jesus glad and the devil mad say this together. Say, Heavenly Father, I'm so glad to be here. It's the year of the new. And I haven't forgotten that. I'm still looking for the new things that you have for me for me to do and for me to receive. I'm a doer of the word, not just a hearer, being deceived, but I'm going to obey your word and enter into the new with joy, unspeakable and full of glory. In Jesus' name. Amen. All right. Praise God. Ephesians chapter 4, please. And we will get into the word together in this year of new. I just remind you, back in January, God gave us a word, Revelation 21, 5. He told John on the Isle of Potmas in the book of Revelation. He said, Behold, I make all things new. Well, praise God. That's for this year. And I trust that you're discovering that. We're going to help you discover even more. Ephesians 4, if I can get my Bible to cooperate. Yes, it will. Verse 11. And he, Jesus, gave some apostles and some prophets and some evangelists and some pastors and teachers for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come in the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. That we henceforth be no more children tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine by the slight of men and cunning craftiness whereby they lie and wait to deceive, but speaking the truth in love may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ, from whom all the body or the whole body, fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplies, according to the effectual working and the measure of every part, make an increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love. And uh what a powerful uh truth that is. Uh, it I like what Brother Mark calls it, is Paul's system of truth, what he received when he went to heaven. And that's why he's wrote two-thirds of the New Testament to the believers, because he had more revelation than the rest of the disciples and the rest of the apostles about uh who we are in Christ. He had more revelation about how God wanted to lay out the church. And so today I wanted to uh share a message on this Vision Sunday entitled Next Steps to Spiritual Growth. Next steps to spiritual growth. If you are a believer, then there's always the next step for your growth. I mean, you never arrive in the church, you never get to the place where you've got it all. You're always growing. You're always growing, but there's a step you have to take. I mean, very similar to a stairway. I mean, you get to a stairway, what happens? Well, you've got to you've got to overcome a riser, you've got to overcome an obstacle. It's usually about seven inches, and you've got to put your foot on that next step and go up. I mean, you can sit there all day long at the bottom of the stairs and wish you were up there, but you've got to move up the steps. And you've got to take the next step. Amen. It's up to you. God's not going to take the step for you. So here in this year of the new, we're instituting a new, and by new I mean fresh, because it's not new, it's right here in the Bible. But it's fresh for us, a fresh, dynamic here at Glorious Way Church, and we have to prepare for the ripe harvest of souls in the end time. We we we're we must not look around this church and say that this is all there is. There's more coming, and we better get prepared. I mean, the time to prepare is right now. We're we're it's an urgent thing. I mean, it's because of what God said about new things. We've got to change some things the way we approach uh uh intake of people through the doors. We want to get make it easier, we want to make it more powerful for people to identify if they belong here. And uh we want to make it more powerful if they do belong here to get them involved. It's just a simple part of it. And uh I'm teaching uh today about how the early church grew with new believers who then grew. They're brand new believers, they're babes in Christ. And then somehow the church got them and began to teach them and to nurture them, and I mean they quickly grew. They didn't sit around. I mean, I've seen people, I was at Lakewood Church for 15 years in ministry position. I saw the same people every year for eight years when I taught at in uh Family Life Institute, which was their version of Sunday school. It was, you know, I taught on redemption for eight years. I see the same people coming through the class. You already heard about it. Why aren't you out there doing it? Why why didn't you, you know, get out the door and start impacting your world? See, some people are ever learning, ever learning, sitting and hearing and hearing and hearing. I've I heard somebody, I think it was T. L. Osborne said the church in America is just overloaded with teaching and they're not doing. Oh, we gotta do. So um they were equipped. Everybody say equipped. See, new believers. They they then, after they became new, then they grew and they finally were equipped to go. And so that's the the theme of our new dynamic. It's new, grow, and go. Let's all say that together. New, go, grow, and go. And we've got a handout. I'm not handing it out on purpose because I don't want you looking at the handout instead of hearing me. But we've got this for you to take home and pray over and look at and meditate on and see what part of the puzzle you're involved in. So Ephesians chapter 4 is God's plan. When we we didn't read verse 8, but in verse 8 it says, Wherefore he saith, when he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive and gave gifts unto men. So what's that talking about? Well, Jesus first went to hell, he suffered there, and on the third day he rose. After, and and in the process of coming alive in hell, he threw off and stripped off of himself the demon powers and Satan himself that had glued himself to him. They thought they had him. Oh, they thought they had won, but no, he's he he was he was risen from spiritual death by the Holy Ghost who went right down into hell and made him alive. And he led a train of vanquished foes. He ascended out of uh of hell and he led those demon powers and Satan himself as conquered enemies. He made a show uh a show of them openly, triumphing over them. And he led a train of vanquished foes, the Bible says. Put them on public display in the heavenlies, in front of all the spirit realm, in front of the Old Testament saints who were down in the bosom of Abraham. He paraded them right through the bosom of Abraham and showed them, hey, the devil has been defeated. And he took them and took them up with him. They all came out of the bosom of Abraham, they all went to heaven. And so then he is so I no last week on Easter, we talked about he descended into heaven. Well, that was the second time. I mean, that's after 40 days that he spent with the church and spent with the disciples telling them about the kingdom of God. That's what we're talking about today, the kingdom of God. They didn't know. The apostles didn't know all about what I'm talking about. They discovered it as they went. But uh he he did talk to them about what they were gonna have to do. So he said, and it says here, he he led captivity captive, he led a train of vanquished foes, and he gave gifts unto men. And then it describes the gifts the apostle, prophet, evangelist, pastor, teacher, the five-fold ministry. These are gifts or doma, which is a present. What happens when somebody gives you a present? Usually it's you gotta unwrap it, don't you? Usually you gotta receive it, don't you? I mean, if you don't receive the present, then what good did the gift do? No, he gave. You know, we sang about him giving. I mean, he gave as a present uh some. Not see, not everybody's an apostle. I saw somebody on Facebook, she looked like about 25, and she's apostle, you know, Sapphira or whatever her name is. I mean, give me a break. You're not an apostle, you're not, you haven't been around long enough to be an apostle. I mean, you don't start off being that. You might have a call, but you you gotta be qualified. I knew I was supposed to be a pastor, but I wasn't one. I had a call. I had to qualify. And I spent a lot of years qualifying. Amen. So uh these gifts are for a purpose, and what is the purpose? For equipping and furnishing the saints. See, I get tickled at the Catholic Church, they have all these saints. Well, we're the saints. Are you nuts? What's wrong with you? That's the Bible that says that every believer is a saint. It doesn't talk about Saint Stanislaus, pray for them, you know, all that baloney, all that stuff that I was taught at Catholic school. I mean, they just they don't they just departed from the Bible. I saw the current Pope criticizing everybody that drops bonds, which means America and Israel. I mean, you know, what an idiot. And he is an idiot because he doesn't know what the word says. Do you really expect us to stand by and watch Iran get a nuclear bomb and just blow the whole world up? I mean, God set this country in a position where he can execute justice and judgment on the earth, Mr. Pope. Need to go back to elementary school. But he's leading millions of people. See, this I have such a passion because I was Catholic. I know what they believe in. It's scrambled eggs, folks. We need to reach out to our Catholic brethren and wake them up because some of them aren't saved. Some of them are trusting in religion, trusting in the words of man and dead traditions. Are you with me now? So God's plan was the fivefold, not just the pastor, but all of them. That's why you can't be completed and completely matured and prepared and equipped on my ministry alone. That's why we bring people in. Not a whole bunch of people, just people that I know are going to deposit something in you that will furnish and equip you for your ministry. Everybody say, I have a ministry. I am a believer and I have a ministry. Yeah, every one of you do. You might not be an apostle, prophet, evangelist, pastor, teacher, but you are a believer. And you're an individual member of the body of Christ. I don't know if you're the left uh fingernail on the left little finger or whether you're the bottom of the elbow or what you are, but you're part of the body. So um, and so why why are we equipped? What are we furnished for? For the work or the labor of the ministry. Well, the ministry means serving. Now I remember Jesus, you know, toward the end, he got he got a uh a basin of water and he tied a towel around his waist and he started washing the disciples' feet. He got to Peter, and Peter said, Oh no, Lord, no, you can't wash my feet. I'll wash your feet. He said, If I don't wash your feet, you have no part in me. He said, Well, don't just do the feet, do my whole body then. But he illustrated that leadership, and every believer is a leader. You might not be leading in the sense of having a team under you, but you're a leader because you're anointed. You've got a ministry. You're but your ministry is what? To serve. Serve what? Serve the body and build the body up. It has to be built up. So you're equipped for the labor of the ministry in order to build up the body of Christ. And uh, and then down here in the ultimate goal there in verse 13, until we all come in the unity of the faith. See, we've got fractures. You've got, I don't know how many denominations and how many strains of non-denominations. I mean, how many of you discovered that non-denomination churches are all different? They're all weird. Some of them are weird. Some of them, that's the strength of a denominational church, at least if you know if you're going to a Baptist church, pretty much they're all pretty much the same. Not too much difference between them. But you go to a non-denominational church, you don't know what you're getting into. You don't know they're gonna handle snakes, or you don't know if they're gonna have people vomiting in bags. You don't know what to think. And uh, and that should not be. There needs to be to come a move of God that will come into the church and unify it and get it ready to be the bride of Christ. And I really believe that time is coming, and I and that's another reason for the for the uh new and the and the grow and the go in this church. We want to participate. So uh the ultimate goal, the unity of the faith and and and the amplified, the precise and correct knowledge of Christ. See, a lot of people think they know Jesus, they don't know squat. They wouldn't know him if he walked in the door. No, you know, the purpose of a local church, and and Brother Osteen put in me local church. I mean, he put that in me so strong. He believed in the local church, he gave his life for the local church. He called pastors continually. He was on the phone encouraging them, you know, corresponding with them, encouraging them. One time he had a couple, they were happened to be assembly of God, and the husband had cheated on the wife, and they were both brokenhearted. He was so ashamed, she was so brokenhearted. They thank God they didn't just curl up and act like nothing happened. They called Brother Osteen. Is there anything you could do? He said, Yeah, you come on to Houston. And they came to Houston and stayed uh close to me at the next subdivision over, and Brother Osteen said, Go over there and talk to him. Here I am, you know. I'm a home builder. But I'm an, you know, I ordained minister. And I drove them around my car. I didn't have an office, I didn't have any place to take them. I couldn't take them to my house. So we drove around in my, I had a van in those days. I drove them around in my van for three hours ministering to them and helping them. And I mean they went back uh reconciled and helped in just a few hours because some, see, that the anointing on my pastor got on me and it and it made a big difference. See, I wasn't just ministering just in my ministry, it was because I was standing in his stead. Are you getting this now? When you minister anything, you're standing in my stead. I can't do it all. I remember one time I was at Lakewood, I came off the platform when I closed the service in prayer, 7,000 people out there. And I go and lay the microphone down and went over to the console. By that time, Brother Osteen and Doty had had left the bill, that left the sanctuary and went back to the offices, they're on their way back home. They're not gonna lay, you know, hang around and at the door and shake people's hands. First of all, there's too many doors for them to be at. And how could you shake 7,000 hands? So he doesn't do that. He does not hang around in fellowship with people. He has to go. He has to preserve his health, he has to preserve his strength. And so he left. So I'm down there at his place because I usually was there. Nobody told me to do it, but I stood in his place and I would be there if somebody had a question for him. I'd I'd try to help him. And sure enough, this old codger, I well, whatever he was, comes up. Uh, is John here? I said, John, hi, I'm John. No, I'm talking about John Osteen. He didn't like that I oh it's my name. He's asking for John, I'm here. Oh, I'm talking about John Osteen. I said, Oh, you mean Pastor Osteen? See, I knew what he was down there for. I knew he was there to critique the message. I knew he was about there to share his wisdom with my with my pastor. See, I man, I mean I ate him alive. No, Pastor, what do you expect him to hang around and shake your hand? I said, he just poured out his life up here. Were you listening? You know, he turned and left. He didn't like it that John Osteen wasn't available. See, see, this is what I can't do it all. You're gonna have to help me. Well, you don't have to. You cannot do it, but I mean I want you to. All right, so so this uh coming into the unity of the faith and of the precise and correct knowledge of God, fully equipped and filled with the fullness of Christ. Wow. And so this process that we have then is going to uh cause people that come in the door to mature from possibly babies. They could be baby Christians. I mean, you know, they they might not not be saved. Or if they are saved, they're baby Christians. So you've got to have something in place for the babies, as well as people that are acquainted somewhat with God, and maybe they're from denominational churches, they're gonna need some teaching, they're gonna have to have some re-education, they're gonna have to throw away some old doctrines and old uh uh relics of stuff that's not in the Bible, and we've got to gently help people renew their mind to the will of God and to the word of God. And so that process needs in in the so you've got the new, and then and you move them out of the new pretty quickly into the grow, and they start growing, and then finally they go. They go into where? I don't mean they go out the door, it means they go into their ministry, and now they can come back in and plug back into the new and plug back into the grow with their experience and their gifting, and they can be leading that and they can be helping that. Are y'all with me now? Glory to God. Everybody say every believer has a ministry. So we receive from him being fitly joined and driven together by association and affection. This is an amplified, and actually knit together to build up each other. I'm a home builder, uh, 25 years, and and I built a lot of houses. And you know, the first thing is that you have a foundation. You got a poor foundation, but you can't live the have it's not a habitation. I mean, it's a long way from a habitation unless you want to build, you know, pup pitch a tent on a slab. No, you've got to have a building. You've got to have a building. And and so, you know, you you you have lumber to deliver it, and I have my framing carpenters out there, and there's big old stacks of lumber that's bound together, and they break the bands, and the lumber gets them, and they start, and the first thing they do, they get some two-fours and they start putting the base plate down on the outside of the, and then they they pop lines and start putting the base plates down on the interior walls of the first floor. Most of my houses were two-story. So you have to put those two by fours down flat, and you have a 2 rifle, uh, 22 caliber gun that shoots anchors and anchors those those bottom plates to the slab. And then it time it's time for the studs, it's time for the walls. Well, you've got a big old stack of essentially nine, if it's a nine-foot ceiling in the downstairs, you've got a nine-foot long stud, less a few inches, to allow for the plates, the top and bottom plates. And uh you you start going through that stack and you look at them, and and he holds them up, and if they're bowed too bad, he just throws them aside. He culls through the lumber until he gets the right straight piece, you know, because if you put a crooked stud in a wall, it's not gonna hold. Its share of the weight. And there's ways around that. If you find one that's crooked, and that's why I'm walking through the house every day. I'm looking for that. That's my job. If I've got a carpenter that's not as good, see, not all carpenters are equal. I mean, some of them are good and some of them are not too good. All they want to do is throw the thing up and get paid. And they don't care if it's crooked. That's not their problem. Well, when I find that guy, I get rid of him. I want somebody that's thinking about building a quality product. And so if you find a crooked stud, you've got to do one of two things. You've got to tear it out and replace it, or you've got to cut it and scab on the side of it, which we would do either way, depending on which way it was both. If you don't do anything, you're going to have a wall eventually that's going to pull the sheetrock nail through the sheetrock on one side and push it out the other side. You're going to have a problem. Are y'all with me now? It's the same. I mean, we God is erecting a building of a holy habitation of the Spirit. And these members, these construction pieces of construction material, which is you, have to be taken care of. They have to be shaped. They have to be, they have to be plumbed up with God's plan. If you've got a bunch of people that don't know anything leading everything, you're going to have a mess. That's why we're still here 31 years later. I've seen church after church fail. I've seen church pastor after pastor fail. We're still here. We must know something. Well, we do know something, but now's the time to shift gears and do some changes and get ready for growth. Get ready for that end-time harvest. Y'all with me now? So notice it they're driven together. I mean, you know, you when you erect a frame on a house, I mean, you've got to have a hammer. You've got to have a 16-ounce hammer. I mean, that thing, you swing that thing all day long, you've got some wrists and forearm muscles, you know. And uh sometimes you've got to drive that that board and get it to move and it's tight. When it and then when you finally nail it with a nail gun, it's in there really tight. You don't want something that's a half inch short. You don't want it a quarter inch short. You're creating trouble. And so sometimes you've got to force it. You've got to force it in there. The Holy Ghost can actually compact us together and get us to start walking in love. And it's not optional. We have to put up with each other. You have to put up with each other for what? For the common good, for the for the glory of God. You gotta learn how to work with each other. Some people just don't play well with others. And they have to learn how to play well with others, they have to learn how to be accountable. But you don't do that in the new stage. The new stage is what? Babies. You don't expect anything of babies except hunger. They want to, they want to milk all the time. And when they don't get it on time, they let you know about it. And then, of course, they want their diaper changed. Are y'all with me now? That's that's very similar. So as people come into GWC, uh, they're new here. They're new. When they're their first time or second time, they're new here. And they're new, their experience with Glorious Way Church is new. They might not be a new Christian, they're just new from another church or new from another denomination or non-denomination. So, so that in order to uh see if they uh belong here, we're gonna we we've had uh classes and they last three weeks, and sometimes it, you know, people can't come all three weeks, and and next thing you know, we have it just takes a long, long time to intake people, and they're excited at first, but then after after a month or five weeks or six weeks, I mean their their excitement grows. Sometimes they don't ever stick, they just leave. That we can't do that. We've got to have something quicker and faster. So we're gonna change the new and we're gonna have a discovery night, one night of fellowship, maybe a meal together where our members come and the new to the church come and they can hear what we're doing and what the vision of the church is, what we're involved with, and then we give them an opportunity to commit themselves, and then the very next Sunday we do that like on a Friday night for an hour and a half. How many would be willing to drive over to the church on a Friday night every month or so or every two months, however what the need is? And you could be part of the group that's welcoming them and getting to know them so they don't feel like they're just fish out of water. You know, some people just don't come back because they don't know anybody and they don't get connected, and that's terrible. We've got to preserve the people coming through the door. God brought them in the door, we gotta keep them. And I tell you, a lot of times people decide when they're in the parking lot. So we gotta be polite out there. We gotta, we can't be, you know, running people off over a parking space. We got, listen, we gotta be, we gotta have the welcome mat out there, and then when they come in the door, we gotta have somebody standing there with a smile on their face. Big old arms to hug the ladies and hands to shake the men if you're a woman, and so and vice versa. And uh, and so I mean the first time I ever went to Lakewood, this guy greeted me at the door. It was a little old bitty uh vestibule. I mean, it wasn't it with a big old church and 5,000, seated 5,000. And the size of the place that you entered in from the parking lot was about half the size of this section right here. So it was crowded in there. But anyway, he was a big, tall black man. He's about 6'5, and here I am 5'9. And I came up to him and I was he was gonna shake my hand, and he just, I thought he was gonna shake my hand, but no, he he wrapped his arms around me and picked me up off the ground, and my feet were dangling. Hello, brother. Welcome to Lakewood Church. I thought, oh my God. What have I gotten myself into? They didn't do that at the Catholic Church. They didn't do that. So we don't need them to be uh swept away off of their feet, but we do need them to be greeted and loved. So then after one night of discovery fellowship, and they make a commitment to be part of this church, then they can proceed to the grow stage. Say, right then, you get into the grow stage. What is the grow stage? Well, there's two elements to the grow stage. There's there's groups, which is for service. Uh, excuse me, there's teams, which is for service, and then there's groups for fellowship. We need both. And this church is a little light on fellowship, so we intend to make it easier for fellowships to develop in the church, mostly centered here at the church. Because we got 110 zip codes. I mean, it's pretty hard to get to know somebody when you live on one side of the town and they're on the other side of the town. But it can be done, but it we need to facilitate it. Now, back when Gladys and I first started going to Lakewood, we lived in spring. And then the other thing was one night we went the first, I got saved. You heard my testimony a couple weeks ago. Well, the second night after I got saved, we went to a full gospel business meeting in Conroe. And we live in spring. We went to Conroe, and the guy that was giving his testimony that night, the the businessman, was a guy by the name of Cecil Dorsey. And uh him and his wife, Linda, lived in Clear Lake. So after that, he gave his testimony of how he got saved and everything. Well, I went up and shook his hand and said, Man, I really enjoyed that. Thanks for giving it. Now, here I'm brand new. I'd never even heard a man give a testimony like that. It was kind of powerful. I mean, I just it was really, I was amazed, really. And uh, well then, you know, as I started going to Lakewood, here's Cecil Dorsey and Linda. And we get to know them. They live in Clear Lake City. They invite us over. We go over all the way across town to go and have a have a dinner with them on a Saturday night and sit around, and here he is a mature Christian, and she's mature, and they're rubbing off on us on me, especially. Now, Gladys was saved already, but she was new to the Spirit of God and all that. She didn't know about baptism. She had it, but she was new to it. And we got to hang out with them. See, that that was then, but now we we've got to have more things in place that make it easier for you to get that done, but we need it. We need it. So they can proceed to the growth stage. But if they're new to the kingdom, in other words, they're babes in Christ, then they've got to receive the milk of the word. 1 Peter 2, 2 uh desire sincerely the the milk of the word that you may grow thereby. So babies have to have milk. What is milk? Milk is the blessing scriptures. Milk is all the things that God has for you as part of his covenant. He loves you, he has healing for you, he has deliverance for you, he has protection for you, he has provision for you. He is, I'm telling you, he, you know, you you major on the blessings. You don't talk so much about responsibilities, you talk about the blessing. People that that in in today's society, they come in here, they've been, many of them have been their broken lives. They have broken lives, they need an encouragement, they need a positive look, they need the milk of the word. You expose them to God and give him all the good. It's good news. Preach good news. Well, it's all good news, but I mean, let's start with the milk. They're not going to stay in there very long. Because pretty soon they grow and get over into the gross tide. Why do you say that? Well, in going back to John chapter 21, Jesus had just risen from the dead, and uh he's out there on the shoreline, and he's got a bunch of fish on the fire. And he calls out to those disciples there out on the lake, and they're cleaning their nets because they're done. See, they they fished all night, didn't have anything. And he said, Hey, boys, hey lads, did you catch anything? No, we've been fishing all night. They didn't have anything. Now they're they're the disciples, but they didn't recognize Jesus. They didn't understand it was him. And he said, Well, cast your net on this side and you'll find. And John told Peter, it's the Lord. He said, That's the Lord. He he dove in the water and he got, you know, got his, just dove in the water, you know. And uh they put the net on the other side and had such a huge catch, it was 160 some odd great fish, and drug it to the land. And he said, now take of the fish that you have caught and put it on the fire. And so they had fish tacos right there on the beach. But they had enough fish left over to sell because they they needed money. I mean, look, after the after the crucifixion, their ministry was was stalled. They had no more treasurer, they had no more money. So they had to go back fishing, and they weren't fruitful until Jesus showed up, and then they now they've got 160 fish. So he they cook a few more and they're they're having a meal together. And he says, Now, Peter, lovest thou me? And Peter says, Yeah, Lord, I do. He said, Feed my lambs. Peter, lovest thou me second time. Yay, Lord, I I love you. Feed my sheep. And then the third time, Peter, lovest thou me? Now this time, Peter's aggravated. Lord, you know everything. You know all things. You know I love you. Yes, I love you. Feed my sheep. So he said, feed my lambs once and feed my sheep twice. So the lambs doesn't take long. The word feed means to pasture, it means to graze. I mean, we're not gonna go out here and cut the thing up and hold our hand out and have the little lamb come eat it out of our hand. That's not how they did it. The little lamb fed from the mother the milk, milk, milk, well, what does that mean? What does that mean? That means in the classes for the new. They have to have classes on their level. They're gonna suck the milk, they're gonna get the milk in them, but I'm telling you, very quickly then, very quickly they're gonna get out of that babyhood stage, and all of a sudden they can be moved over into the grow stage where they can finish maturing and being equipped. Are y'all with me now? So, uh, gotta give them something to graze on, gotta give them something to feed, and they got to do the eating. I remember when I first got saved, I was so hungry. I mean, I read every book. Brother Osteen had all these little mini books. I bought every one of them, I read every one of them, I devoured them. And we were going once a week to a Bible study to the lady who had prophesied over me. Now, she was not a minister, she was not recognized, she didn't have cards, she was a believer. And God used her to basically minister a prophetic word to me, which I read to you a couple of weeks ago. I mean, it's an amazing thing, probably never happened before or since for her. I mean, because why? Because she's not a prophet, she's not an apostle, a pastor, a teacher. She was just a believer, and God gave her something for me. I'm so glad for the believer's ministry. The believer's ministry is why I'm here. Everybody say the believer's ministry. He can use you to do magnificent things and will. Oh, we've got it coming up. So I want you to see here in the grow dynamic where people are growing, they had on the day of Pentecost. Remember the day of Pentecost, Peter came out and all the disciples speaking in other tongues, and everybody in the town, people from over uh every nation under heaven, were there to celebrate the feast, and they all heard them speak in their own native tongue the wonderful works of God. And they they thought, What meaneth this? These men are drunk. And Peter gets up off the ground because he's drunk and he fell on the ground when he came out. He got up and he said, These men are not drunk as you suppose, but these men are filled with the Holy Ghost. This is that spoke, the beginning of that was spoken by the prophet Joel. And he started preaching. At the end of the preaching, they said, Well, what must we do to be saved? Repent and be baptized, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. So the number of the souls was 3,000. Now that's when it all started. Do you think it's just gonna be three people now? Is it gonna be 30? Is it gonna be 300? Listen, God knows how to farm a crop. He knows how He planted Jesus in the grave, and Jesus was the firstborn among many brethren. And at the end, it's gonna be greater than the beginning. That's why we can't get tunnel vision and just look at this church and how big it is, and this is how it's gonna be. No, it's gonna be big. It's gonna be big all at once, and we better get ready right now. If we're not ready right now, we we're gonna lose a lot of the harvest. Are y'all are y'all getting my my drift on this? I want it's vision Sunday. I want you to see the vision of what we're doing and why. So you had these 3,000 brand new believers, and in Acts 2.42, uh, let's look at that. 3,000 of them, man. I mean, these people were some of the same ones that said crucified. These were some of the ones that were hard hard shell Baptist, you know. You ever met a hard shell Baptist person? They don't gamble, they don't drink, they don't play cards, they don't cuss, and they don't only in private. Praise God. I had a lot of relatives that were hard shell baptists. I can I'm stepping on toes now. I'm sorry. I'm just having fun. All right, Acts chapter 2, verse 42. And they, and who's they? Well, that's 3,000 plus 120. They came out of the upper room, so that's 3,120 people. They continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine or teaching and fellowship and in breaking of bread and in prayers, four things, that they continued steadfastly. So um, they steadfastly persevered, devoting themselves constantly. That's what the amplified says. So, guess what? Do you know anybody that's that committed as a baby? See, they have to be encouraged, they have to be, they have to be uh looked after. You have to, you have to watch after the babes. You've got to take them by the hand, you've got to hold their hand and get them to the church. You've got to call them it during the week. Hey, are you gonna be at the at the new believers class? Uh, you know, I'll I'll come by and pick you up. Or I'll, you know, you're gonna have to get more involved with these brand new babies. We can't just let the babies come in here and just kind of go, I'm gonna leave. Circumstance. The devil's always there to pick off what the word uh gives them. He's there immediately to steal it out of their heart. We're gonna have to do something about it. And they did something about it. What did they do? They they provided a place for them to come and come uh to under the instruction. They provided a place for fellowship and for breaking of bread, including communion, but not limited to communion. It wasn't just a communion service, it's food. It's it's a meal together. You know, the Jews, they were big on meals together. That was the only way you really had fellowship, was a meal. So they came from that standpoint. We've kind of gotten away from that a little bit, but we might have to get back into that. We might have to provide opportunities for brand new babies to have fellowship. It doesn't have to happen here, it can happen organically in your home or uh how you, but at some point we got to have something organized. Breaking of bread, fellowship, breaking of bread, and prayers. They prayed. So it all also implies serving. See, somebody had to serve all that food, somebody had to prepare communion. Was it the 120? You know, I don't think 120 could handle 3,000 people. So somehow, somehow, the the the the serving part got handled. It had to get handled. See, it had to get handled. So, I mean, I remember when I when I first started going to Lakewood Church, I mean, I I was still a baby. I didn't know very much, but uh they were getting ready for a world convention and they needed help mowing the grass, and the Holy Ghost said, You can go help them mow the grass. Okay. I got on the grass mowing team. I mowed the grass. You know, I they needed help with a bunch of chairs. I rode over to a big old huge warehouse where they had stored a bunch of extra metal folding chairs. They needed about, I don't know, a couple of thousand of them. And uh we we went made about five or six trips over there. Me riding in the back of an open bed trailer with a pickup truck helping load the stuff that they needed for this. See, I just got involved and I'm a baby. I helped serve. See, sometimes babies can actually serve a little bit before they become fully grown. I I use this example all the time. I've seen little nine or ten-year-old girls uh take mommy's place. They're just like a little rail, you know, they're skinny and tall and getting gangly, and their teeth are too big for their mouth, and and and you know, they they're a little goofy sometimes. But you know what? I see them stick that hip out and get little baby brother or little baby sister on that little old hip, and they walk around for hours with that baby on their hip. And mama doesn't have to carry the baby all day long. Are y'all with me now? Everybody said we're gonna help carry the babies. So in Acts 4, I want you to see this. So, Acts 4, you know, Acts chapter 3, Peter and John went down to at the hour of prayer, they're going to the temple. See, they're still over at the temple a lot, in the synagogues. You know, and so it's kind of unclear about where they were meeting for their meetings. But in Acts chapter 4, what happened in Acts chapter 3 was they found the man that had been lame all of his life, 38 years, laying at the gate, beautiful. And of course, Peter said, Silver and gold have I none, but such as I have give I thee in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth. Rise up and walk. He picked him up by the hand, and immediately his feet and ankle bones received strength, and he went walking and leaping and praising God. Into the temple. And there was a big multitude of people that saw it and they were amazed. And Peter said, What do you why are you looking at us as though some by our own power this happened? Be it known unto you all that in the name of Jesus and through faith in this in that name, this man has been made whole. Yea, the faith of Jesus Christ has given him this perfect soundness in the presence of you all. And he began to preach that message, and and 20, well, 5,000 men got saved that day. And if if 5,000 men got saved, you've got wives, you've got kids, you wouldn't be exaggerating if you didn't believe that there were at least 20,000 new believers on one day. Everybody say 20,000. Plus 3,000. Plus 120. 23,120 people. That's a whole gob of people, most of them babies. And yet the church handled it. Are y'all with me? We can handle it. If we'll do what they did, we can handle it. If we'll follow the the plan that's in the Bible in Ephesians 4, we can handle it. I can't, but we can't. I can't, but we can't. And so that made the Jews mad. Why? Because their tithes went down. It's all about money, folks. I mean, you think about that many people leaving the group that's meeting in the temple in Jerusalem, 20,000 and then 3,000 before that, and 120 before that. I mean, that's a significant drop in attendance. And a drop in their budget. And they are mad. Don't you dare preach or teaching that name again. They didn't say what they would do, but they were threatening. And so, here in Acts chapter 4, let's look at it. Verse 23. And being let go, they went to their own company and reported all that the chief priests and elders had said unto them. They went to their own company. And when you look up that word company, it means a dedicated space or place. Separate. It was not the synagogue. They had a gathering place that could accommodate 23,120 people. I don't know what it was a building or not, but it was a place. When they went, they came to their own company, their own place, and they reported all that the high priest had said, and they had a prayer meeting. And I won't go through the whole prayer meeting, but at the end of the prayer meeting, uh, when they had prayed, verse 31, when they had prayed, they asked God for help. That's what they did. They asked for boldness, they asked for signs and wonders and miracles to be done in the name of Jesus. And when they had prayed, verse 31, the place was shaken. See, the place. The place was shaken. See, the local church is a place. The place was shaken. What do you mean, shaken? Shaken? Like an earthquake. I'm talking about the floor vibrating, or the pavement, or whatever. And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost. Well, they'd already been filled with the Holy Ghost, so they were filled again. See, see, when you gather together, you ought to get filled again. We ought to be filled. Every time we get together, there ought to be some kind of something that happens, a dynamic, the word, the prayer of something is going to happen where we all get filled with the Holy Ghost. That's the only way we can do this job. It's filled with the Holy Ghost. So they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and they spoke the word of God with both. They went on and told how the apostles did great signs and wonders among the people. They took an offering. The people were so in love with each other. They loved each other. They saw people. See, if you're a Jew and you get water baptized as a Christian, you get disowned from your family heritage. You get disinvited to all the gatherings of your family. You're put out of your family. You could lose your inheritance. Some of these people were destitute. They didn't have their houses anymore. And so some of the people they looked around and said, Oh, brother so-and-so needs some help. I'm going to sell, I'm going to sell one of my properties and give the money. They sold houses and lands and brought the money and laid it at the apostles' feet for distribution. And there was no lack among any of them. Or y'all, come on, lift your hand right now. See, that's the love of God, that's the generosity of God working in people that were basically brand new Christians. Are y'all with me now? So the instruction. So they had to have instruction, fellowship, breaking of bread, and prayers, and serving and uh and belonging. You have teams and you have groups. And uh so you know a team is a team that that serves. Well, we have a welcome team, it's a team of folks uh uh that's led by Irma Martinez, and she's led it for years, and and they their job is to man the the entrances and make sure that everybody's gotten a Holy Ghost welcome. And they have meetings and stuff. We have a uh uh lots of teams. We have a worship team that did a great job here this morning. We have we have a life team that prays for helps me pray for people at the altar. They're they're they're uh brought along, and it's a it's a position of trust that that uh that you can be part of after you've grown, and people have looked at how you operate and whether you've got, you know, uh that you play well with others, you know. And uh and then you've got the gatekeepers, which is kind of two things. It's ushers plus it's security, and it's a team you can serve on. We've got hospitality, we've got lots of teams, and that every every believer ought to have something to do, something with your ministry that you can serve to edify the building. And you're you're part of this building, you're one of the studs, and you're not crooked. Uh, you're straight, and you're bearing your weight. And if we don't bear our weight, this whole thing will fall down. Then only a few people do all the work. It'd be like me building a house, and on this wall I've got two studs, on the back wall, I've got two studs. I mean, the whole house is gonna fall down. No, you've got to have studs on 16-inch centers, and they gotta be straight as an arrow to bear the weight. If they're crooked, they'll just crumble. I mean, you know, so you you can see the the comparison to a building that God is building. So finally, then you get into this place where you have teams to serve and you have groups that have fellowship. And then that leads you into the go dynamic. Again, you're not a perpetual uh person that just always ever learning and never coming to the knowledge of the truth. I've seen that my whole ministry. I've seen people, they they know, no, no, no, but they don't do, do, do. They know, but they don't do. They know, but they don't do. No, we're gonna motivate you to do. And hopefully this message will stir a fire in you because God's doing new things. He's doing new things in some of you. Maybe you've been sitting on the sidelines when you really need to get into the game. And this is your opportunity. We're gonna make opportunity for people. We want to make it easy. We don't want to make it hard. We want to make it easy for people to serve. We're not trying to hurt you, we're trying to get you to be part of the solution. So the go dynamic is really when you equip people to help in the new dynamic and in the grow dynamic. When you're ready to go, that means you can teach others. That means you can watch after people, that means you are are have gone through enough of what we believe around here where you're buying in. See, not everybody that comes in the door buys into what we're saying. But you have, most of you have bought in, so hey, now to take the next step in your spiritual growth. There's no, there's nobody, again, this whole thing, you're you're gonna still grow as you go. You're still growing because every time you minister to somebody, you know, you pour out of your spirit and the Holy Ghost fills you back up and you learn something from that ministry. I just I just treasure the ministry God entrusted me with because I've learned and grown so much just ministering to people. Yeah, I enjoy sitting and listening. I do. But now I grow just by getting ready to preach. I grow just by laying my hands on people up here. I'm growing. I'm still growing. You know, you quit growing, then you start shrinking. There's no there's no treading the water. So we are gonna equip people to help with the new dynamic and with the grow dynamic. You have to have leaders for all this to occur to make disciples out of babies. That's the bottom line, to make disciples out of the babies. And then the other, of course, that's that that arrow, if you get this little thing, you've got new, grow, and go. On go, you've got two arrows. One equip, goes this way, comes back into church, and you help us equip. The other one is evangelize, go out. Does that mean that you're an evangelist? No, I'm not talking about an evangelist. I'm talking about somebody that's performing in the believer's ministry in their world. It doesn't mean you're gonna go to Africa. It doesn't mean that you're gonna go overseas. It means that you it doesn't mean that you're gonna have ministry cards and print them up. Undoubtedly, some of that will happen. Undoubtedly, ministries will be birthed here and sent out from here. We've done it before, we'll do it again. But what I'm talking about is the believers' ministry. And the believers ministry is what I entered into at Lakewood. I've been immediately, I mean, I started impacting my world. I started laying hands on sick people, I started seeing miracles, I started seeing after about three weeks or four weeks of going to the Bible study, I had just been saved a month, and I just got baptized in the Holy Ghost. The very next week after baptism of the Holy Ghost, uh, the lady turned over the prayer, the Bible study to me. She said, Okay, you're the leader now, you're gonna teach the Bible study. I said, Me? I mean, I just I mean, I felt so unqualified. And it was, I mean, I had, I mean, I read my Bible, I read every book I could read, getting ready for Thursday night, because here it here people or six or eight or ten people are gonna come in there and they're gonna expect me to lead a Bible study, and I hadn't been saved but a month. I grew more in those following months than you could have. I mean, it was like I got shot out of a rocket. I mean, I packed my, I was so hungry for everything I could read. I read Brother Hagin's books, I read Brother Hostin's books. I mean, it's like a fire hydrant. Are y'all with me now? I mean, the devil sent a lady one night to argue with me. I knew her. I won't say anything more, but I mean I did know her personally. And she started arguing with me and kind of talked took me off guard. I thought I was among friends, but she wasn't so friendly. She was taking issue with the word of faith. She was taking issue with you can have what you say, and she argued. And so then the lady thankfully kind of took over and gently took it back over and kind of corrected the situation, and by her doing that, taught me how to handle disgruntled people one-on-one. And I was gonna have to learn that very well. All right, and I have learned it very well. Amen. Everybody say we're equipping people, so uh leaders have to be developed. Uh, we're making disciples out of babies, and we're causing evangelism to occur from this place. And uh I just want to remind you as we close, in every believer's ministry, every believer's life, there is always a next step to take for your spiritual growth. Come on, lift your hands and receive today. Hallelujah. Glory to God. Everybody say, I'm taking the next step, I'm adopting the new things, I'm being part of the solution. I'm gonna be part of a move of God that's greater than my my own ministry. I'm part of something greater than myself. Hallelujah. Glory to God. You know, vision. I want you to catch the vision of this church being full and vibrant, so full that we're gonna have to have more than one Sunday morning service. And say, just think about what it takes to do that. Think about what serving has to occur, think about what fellowship has to occur. I was with Brother Osteen, I brought him a uh a friend of mine who was about to start, in fact, had started a church, and he wanted so badly to meet Brother Osteen's from another city. So I I used my favor with Brother Osteen. I said, I got this friend, he just started a church, and uh he would love to meet you. Have you got time just to say hello to him? Yeah. So I brought him by, and uh Brother Osteen greeted him, you know, and he said, Well, what's the name of your church? He said, The remnant. He said, Oh, that's a terrible name. He said, A remnant sounds like just a handful. No, it's it's you got to come up with a different name. And then my friend kept trying to uh you know explain why. Brother Osteen wasn't having it. See, he had a vision, and of course he had a big church too. But see, his vision was always never, never little, never small. No, his vision is for the world. His vision is a huge vision. See, that's what we've got to take on. We've got to we've got to increase our vision. Come on, lift your hands right now.